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Cooper v. Aspen Skiing Company6/24/2002
rse, no parental support, and no method to support himself or care for his injury.
2. Other Jurisdictions
Our holding that parents may not release a minor's prospective claim for negligence comports with the vast majority of courts that have decided the issue. In fact, the highest courts of two of our sister states, Utah and Washington, recently analyzed the precise issue facing us today, and both concluded that a parent may not execute a release on behalf of his minor child for prospective claims sounding in negligence. In Hawkins v. Peart, 37 P.3d 1062 (Utah 2001), eleven-year-old Jessica Hawkins was injured when she was thrown from a horse during a trail ride with her family. Id. at 1063. Jessica's mother had signed a release containing a waiver of liability and an indemnity provision. Id. Relying on a public policy exception specifically relating to releases of a minor's claims and reasoning that Utah's statutes and rules favored the protection of minors with respect to contractual obligations, the Utah Supreme Court held that a parent may not release a minor's prospective claim for negligence. Id. at 1065-66.
In addition, the facts of Scott v. Pacific West Mountain Resort, 834 P.2d 6 (Wash. 1992), are remarkably similar to those presented in this case. In Scott, twelve-year-old Justin Scott, a student of a ski school, sustained severe head injuries while skiing a slalom race course that had been set by the ski school's owner. Scott, 834 P.2d at 8. Prior to the injury , Justin's mother had signed a ski school application that included an exculpatory clause relieving the school from any liability for its own negligence. Id. at 8-9. The Washington Supreme Court reasoned that "since a parent generally may not release a child's cause of action after injury, it makes little, if any, sense to conclude a parent has the authority to release a child's cause of action prior to an injury." Id. at 11-12. Accordingly, the court held, "to the extent a parent's release of a third party's liability for negligence purports to bar a child's own cause of action, it violates public policy and is unenforceable." Id. at 12.
Finally, other courts across the nation that have considered the issue have determined that a parent may not release a minor's prospective cause of action. See, e.g., Apicella v. Valley Forge Military Acad. & Junior Coll., 630 F. Supp. 20, 24 (E.D. Pa. 1985) ("Under Pennsylvania law, parents do not possess the authority to release the claims or potential claims of a minor child merely because of the parental relationship."); Fedor v. Mauwehu Council, Boy Scouts of Am., 143 A.2d 466, 468 (Conn. Super. Ct. 1958) (ruling that "it is doubtful that either the mother or father of this minor plaintiff had the power or authority to waive his rights against the defendant arising out of acts of negligence on the part of the defendant" and sustaining the demurrer of the plaintiff to the special defense that the waiver of all claims for damages absolved the defendant of liability); Meyer v. Naperville Manner, Inc., 634 N.E.2d 411, 415 (Ill. App. Ct. 1994) ("Since the parent's waiver of liability was not authorized by any statute or judicial approval, it had no effect to bar the minor child's (future) cause of action . . . ."); Doyle v. Bowdoin Coll., 403 A.2d 1206, 1208 n.3 (Me. 1979) (stating in dicta that "a parent, or guardian, cannot release the child's, or ward's, cause of action"); Fitzgerald v. Newark Morning Ledger Co., 267 A.2d 557, 559 (N.J. Super. Ct. Law Div. 1970) (concluding that release and indemnity provision signed by father on behalf of his minor son was void as against public policy); Alexander v. Kendall Cent. Sch. Dist., 634 N.Y.S.2d 318, 319 (N.Y. App. Di
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